And here's a little extra to keep you retired, OK?

Keep your friends close and your potential competitors even closer -- that's good advice, and it looks like Western Sierra Bancorp agrees with it.

Case in point is veteran Auburn banker Jack Briner, who retired from daily operations as chief executive of Auburn Community Bank at the end of June. Briner has opened two banks in Auburn, and his contract with holding company Western Sierra Bancorp seeks to keep him from opening another anytime soon; his substantial severance package is tied to a noncompete clause.

Briner is still chairman of the board of Auburn Community Bank, and was named to the board of Western Sierra Bancorp. The agreement pays Briner $247,500 as a severance benefit and bans him from competing with Western Sierra for a year if he is not re-elected to the Western Sierra board, or for two years if he resigns.

Briner founded Auburn Bank of Commerce in 1983, which he sold to ValliWide bank in 1995. That bank was bought by Westamerica Bank in early 1997. Westamerica fired Briner that year and he filed for a new bank charter that same week. He started Auburn National Bank in 1998; it became Auburn Community and was acquired by Western Sierra in 2003.

'Big' isn't so big

We've told you about some pretty big mall projects on these pages lately. Westfield Group intends to spend $150 million to add about 400,000 square feet to its existing 1.1 million-square-foot Galleria at Roseville. What was originally going to be Elk Grove's regional mall is now planned as on open-air town center of 1.3 million square feet, not counting another possible 2 million square feet of satellite retail.

"Yawn," say America's giant-mall aficionados.

While to us these are big potatoes, they're humbled by North America's largest malls, ranked by gross leasable area in last week's Top 10 list by trade pub Women's Wear Daily. At the top was West Edmonton Mall in Alberta, Canada, at 3.8 million square feet. Even the 10th-largest, Lakewood Center Mall in the California city of that name, comes in at 2.09 million. California had three of the largest malls, including No. 2 South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, with 2.8 million square feet.

Better than meters? Whee!

On July 25, the city of Sacramento will pull the curtain on its "Pay and Display" pilot parking project around Cesar Chavez Plaza downtown.

Six to eight parking kiosks will replace coin-operated meters on all four sides of the park. The solar-powered machines will take coins or credit cards; parkers must put the receipt in their curbside window, and can use extra time at another spot.

The city says these things cost less to run and maintain than the old meters, and are expected to increase parking turnover so that more people can enjoy the benefits of fee-based downtown curbside parking opportunities.

What about video cribbage?

What are Greater Sacramentans searching for on the Internet this summer? America Online is glad we asked. A survey of AOL searches from the Sacramento area found that the top items of interest were Southwest Airlines, The Sacramento Bee, United Airlines, Home Depot and Costco.

But what's "hot"? The fastest-spiking search terms showed that Sacramento wants to find out ways to win video games, more about a certain amusement park, how to find a partner, and details about handicrafts and a classic card game. That would translate to "Xbox Cheats," "Six Flags," "dating," "beads" and "cribbage."

Some searchers just wanted out. Top local travel searches traced by AOL were for Disneyland, Yosemite National Park, Las Vegas, Reno and San Francisco.